AustLit

'Ever since it was freed from the shackles of mindless instinct, humanity has been tantalised by the possibilities of space. History is littered with the quest for the grandest secrets imaginable. But what if we found proof that everything around us was not as it seemed, that everything was contrived like a delicately prepared pie?

'The first tendrils of the cosmic wind had punched through Neptune's methane clouds several hours before. Engulfing the Moon, the mainly gamma-length hurricane reached Earth a little over a second later. Spanning forty-trillion kilometres of space, the high-energy photons had arrived, flooding the third planet with a potent but mostly invisible particle storm. In the dwindling twilight a fantastic new object blossomed in the Earth's sky.

'Humanity had long dreamed of visiting some of the more interesting stars beyond its solar system - now they were faced with the prospect of one of their neighbouring stars coming to visit them. Earthly philosophy was suddenly turned on its head, and in a heartbeat was shattered to less than dust. In the blink of an eye, humanity was stripped of its most rudimentary notions of self. Paradigms weren't simply lost - they were mauled and digested without trace.

'What began as a mission to rescue Earth from a global killer leads to the most profound adventure of all. Not just to First Contact, but to something no one could have imagined: a chance encounter with the stupefying needlework of the Gods themselves.' (Publication summary)